How to Hide a Facebook Friend From News Feed Without Unfriending Them

Over the past several weeks I’ve been asked by friends of mine how they can hide friends’ posts on Facebook without actually unfriending that person. Fortunately, this is a very simple procedure that takes only seconds.

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Note: Facebook has changed the method for achieving this. Please see this article for updated instructions.

Why Not Just Unfriend Them?

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One may ask why you would have a friend on Facebook whose posts you can’t see? And if they are so annoying, why not just unfriend them? While I opt for the unfriend option often myself, there are times that hiding is a better route, especially when it comes to old friends and extended family members. During the political season, for example, many people tend to forget that not everyone shares their political views, and rant about their particular viewpoint. I’ve hidden many of those friends until after the election. Or you may have Aunt Martha who posts religious links all day long. I can’t tell you how many of my high school friends I’ve had to hide for one of those reasons. So there are lots of reasons why you may not want to actually unfriend a person whose posts you find annoying. The beauty of hiding their posts is that they don’t realize you no longer see them.

How to Hide a Friend From Your Newsfeed
The procedure itself is simple. Simply mouse over the person’s name, then mouse over the word “Friends.” This will pop up several options. The option “Show in News Feed” will be checked next to anyone you are currently seeing. Uncheck this option and your friend will magically disappear from your news feed, and they’ll have no idea that their annoying posts are being blissfully ignored.

Below is a screen capture of the option to hide a friend from your newsfeed.

Once again: Facebook has changed the method for achieving this. Please see this article for updated instructions.

That is old news. I want to hide people from what I show without having to post to a certain list or hide a person each time. Why can’t I select to hide one person from my newsfeed I don’t want on there? Great. I can’t see their BS if I hide them from the newsfeed, but they can still see mine unless I make sure I make a list and only post to that or specifically block that person each time I post. It’s a lot of work and no I can’t unfriend some of these aholes I have on here.

Philip

Hi. My problem is I dont have a “show in newsfeed” button anywhere. I can find no info on this problem either. Please help!

Christy

When I hover over a friends name, the only thing that comes up is:

Get Notifications
Close Friends
Acquaintances
Add to another list
Suggest friends
See friendship
Report/ block
Unfriend

I don’t see the option of hide in news feed!!
Please help with this!!

Cindy

That is the best ever. So tired of people posting countless pics of themselves. Some days 20 or more. Really annoying.

Tinker

I spent hours doing this to hide a lot of friends who post boring rubbish. It worked well on my laptop but on the mobile app on my Blackberry phone it is the same as ever. There doesn’t seem to be a way to fix it. I tried refreshing the friends list; then going to Friends list or each friend’s page but the options are all to poke the friend or phone them, not shut them the f+ck up.

Karen

This won’t work for me. When I hover over “friend,” there are no options between “notifications” & “close friends.” That is, it doesn’t offer me “Show in news feed” or “settings.” Why do I not have those options?

waffles

Interesting. We weren’t able to duplicate that here. Perhaps one of our readers can help?

Laurie

Thank you so much! Just what I wanted.

Kenny

Just un-friend them! Think about it this way. It’s not really fair to them to think that you really give a crap about what they say. They think you’re reading their pithy comments, when you’re not. Just dump em!

David

Is it possible for the person I’ve hidden to know in an illegal way or something that I’ve hid them, eg using some sort of software?? I want to hide this close friend who is a facebook expert, she’s soo sensitive and if she finds out, I won’t be able to make it up to her. I just want to hide her annoying posts, not hurt her feelings. Please reply asap anyone because I’ve already hid her !! Thanks in advance 😀

Elizabeth

I managed it on the iPad, just went into my friends page hovered over the friend box and the drop down box came up. Good luck everyone

Wendy

Can I find out who has done this to me?? So I can make a new account and send more to them?? LMAO… (JUST KIDDING!!) Have a good day, week, month, year… HECK… have an awesome life everyone!!!!!!! (-:

caitengl

I want to know how to stop showing up in my mom’s news feed (on the left side of her screen). She doesn’t see what I post on my page, but if I make a comment on other pages she follows me and makes stupid irrelevant comments. It drives me nuts and keeps me from commenting on friends pages because I know she’s watching. AND I’m in my 40’s! Why is my mother stalking me!? If she didn’t live 900 miles away I would go to her house and change her settings and make myself an acquaintance on her FB.

waffles

That is a tough one, because if you’re posting on a the wall of a third person, it’s hard to limit her from seeing that. Have you tried making her an acquaintance and limiting all privacy options for your activity to to “friends except acquaintances”? That may not solve it completely, but it might cut down a little more of what she sees.

jmji

Can my friends still see my post after I unchecked ‘show in news feed’??

waffles

Yes. You are only hiding them from your news feed.

Polly

I need help. When I set the settings on each friend for what I want to receive from the, i.e. games, comments and likes, etc. it does not save those settings and each day everything is clicked on again..news feed, notifications as if I had never changed them. this is happening to all my friends the settings no longer stick like they use to. Please anyone have a solution???? I hate having to redo every day. thanks.

Jackson

How do you do this on the mobile app? It only gives me the options of Unfriend or Edit Friends List. Thanks!

37happymom

same here! i see this issue has not been addressed yet. i dont want to unfriend, only hide. but mobile app on ipad or iphone only gives option to unfriend or block. maybe try going to a desktop and doing it that way somewhere, or use FAQ on fb to find answer.

xzy

This worked for people I don’t like on my friends list, especially relatives with annoying FB behavior.

xzy

Add to that, those relatives who clearly ostracized you on facebook, like they have an exclusive club there and they act like they’re so classy and everything. 😛

rhk

Oh Thank You So Much! I’ve been scrolling around for days and couldn’t find anything. It would NEVER occur to me to have to go to the person’s page; I thought it would be (as it used to be) controlled from my Settings. I have “friends” who post four to five times a day; I don’t want to unfriend them b/c I do want occasional contact, but their choking up my feed with incessant posting is maddening. God bless you for posting this.

waffles

Hey we’re just glad you found it useful!

Terry

I have unchecked he “show in newsfeed” and they still appear. The other problem I am having is I can not stop the likes and comments of people that have nothing to do with me. Any ideas?

Doug Browning

Also, if you click on the “Settings” item below “Show in News Feed”, you can filter out specific types of posts, such as status, likes, game updates, etc., and still see that friend’s other posts on your newsfeed, by un-checking the unwanted items in the drop-down menu and keeping “Show in News Feed” checked.

waffles

Good tips – thanks for the addition!

Leanne

Thank you SO much. There is an old childhood friend who at this time seems to *live* on FB and deposit every tiny thought pattern that pops up. It is so great to be able to hide this stuff without hurting his feelings. *cheer*

waffles

Those are the exact types of friends that prompted the writing of this article. Glad we could help!

Felicia

If I select certain friends to not show in my news feed, will my posts show in their news feed like normal? I don’t want my posts to suddenly disappear from them and they think I blocked them…I just don’t want to see their stuff anymore! Thanks!

waffles

They will still see you. They’d have to hide you in the same manner if they don’t want to see you.

Jim

When you hide a friends posts on the newsfeedand timeline, do your other friends still see them ( ie: if they are not friends with my hidden friend)
Thanks, good post.

waffles

I believe everything else works as usual, but you just don’t see that friend’s posts in your timeline anymore.

Doug Browning

Your friends never see your newsfeed and you can set who can see your timeline by going to your profile, clicking on the gears next to the Activity Log button, ans selecting Timeline Settings from the drop-down menu.

Linda

Thank you thank you thank you…

waffles

You’re welcome welcome welcome!!

sally

when you hide from newsfeed does this limit any other communication with that person, eg. can you send them a message and will they see it?

waffles

Yes you can still send them messages as usual.

Mike

Tha works to a limited extent. They still show up as “online” in your list of online friends. How can you hide them completely without actually unfriending them?

waffles

You can also hide friends from chat but going into the chat’s Advanced Settings and in the “Turn on chat for all friends except…” section, you can enter the person’s name there, too!

Aggravated

I’ve DONE this with countless people, and they STILL show up in my newsfeed!! NOW WHAT??

Frances

I once got “Get Notifications” confused with “Show in Newsfeed”. Now that I corrected which one I checked/unchecked, it works correctly for me, as the author states.

Recheck each person for these two settings by hovering over the “Friend” button and selecting the proper option. Get Notifications is what creates an alert top left. I keep people on that that are really important to me, whom I do not want to miss any posting.

Newsfeed is what shows up on the wall of comments and posts.

nav

this is exactly i was looking for the same reasons.

Some of friends have been shairng accidents and bloody operations for general knowledge.

I could not see red screen at all.

Thanks:)

waffles

Hah I think everyone has friends like that on Facebook! Good luck!

Neosimian Sapiens

The latest thing I’m seeing on Facebook is “Suggestions based on pages you like.” I can find no way to stop Facebook from inserting these things. If I say I like Page X, then articles that Facebook considers related to Page X might show up in my news feed.

I don’t want to see those suggestions. I can find no way to turn them off, so I’ve stopped awarding Likes to pages I like.

Oh, I’ve also utterly given up on signing up to any Facebook games, because I don’t like see their posts on my wall. Yes, I can set things up so that only *I* can see them, but I don’t need to be reminded that I captured The Magic Chicken in Magicville (or whatever the latest game craze is).

Crystal

THANK YOU… Was getting wicked annoyed at the political stuff… Much appreciated… Worked like a charm… Didn’t realize it was soooo simple… Thanks a million…